TSPDT

Terrence Malick

"Malick is the modern American cinema's great poet-philosopher, whose images, painstakingly perfectionist in their historical accuracy yet imbued with the timelessness of myth, speak of a fascination with - and perhaps, faith in - the transcendent." - Geoff Andrew (The Director's Vision, 1999)

"Since he made only four movies in 30 years, Terrence Malick's filmography is one of the slimmest in cinema history - yet each film is considered among the finest of its genre. All four films directed by the enigmatic Malick are concerned with the corruption of innocence, the mythic expulsion from Eden, and the American propensity to violence... Each of these ravishing, meticulously crafted films is ironic, fatalistic, and allusive, with a variety of narrative strands, all dealing with the same situations from different viewpoints." - Ronald Bergan (Film - Eyewitness Companions, 2006)

"An enigmatic and assiduously reclusive figure, Malick has been referred to as the J.D. Salinger of the movies. Only recently did he choose to return to directing after a twenty-year self-imposed exile from the film world. To date Malick's directing career encompasses a mere 3 films in 27 years. While in no way prolific, Malick exemplifies how narrative cinema has the potential to mesmerise and challenge an audience's perception of reality." - Peter Homden (Contemporary North American Film Directors, 2002)

"Almost as legendary for his silence as for his films, Terrence Malick has created a myth around himself worthy of Stanley Kubrick. He began his career as a philosophy teacher, studying the subject at harvard and Oxford before going on to teach at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At the same time - the late 1960s - he worked as a journalist and was one of the first graduates of the recently founded American Film Institute." - Lloyd Hughes (The Rough Guide to Film, 2007)

"Malick represents the obverse of the usual Hollywood coin - an erudite, literate man who chose not to make movies for twenty years because he wasn't prepared to settle for second best." - Mario Reading (The Movie Companion, 2006)

"A 20-year break between his second and third features made him a notoriously reclusive figure; his few films have been lyrical, visually painstaking creations." - Chambers Film Factfinder, 2006

"As Greta Garbo learned, elusiveness and inactivity can feed a legend; so it is that Terrence Malick has become one of the most intriguing figures in recent film history, as much for his long sabbatical as for his striking movie work." - Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia, 1995

TSPDT GuideHighly RecommendedBadlands (1973)★, Days of Heaven (1978)★, The Thin Red Line (1998)★RecommendedThe New World (2005)❖Worth a LookThe Tree of Life (2011)★❖, To the Wonder (2012) ❖Acclaimed Films/IMDB Filmography★ 1,000 Greatest Films ❖21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films